{"id":103529,"date":"2026-01-17T20:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103529\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T20:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:53:11","slug":"chicago-principal-resigns-after-students-caught-practicing-nazi-tune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103529\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago principal resigns after students caught practicing Nazi tune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The headmaster of Chicago\u2019s tony Latin School will resign less than two weeks after it was revealed that students were rehearsing Nazi marching themes for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Thomas Hagerman revealed his plans to leave his job in a Jan. 14 email to the Latin School community which cited health issues as the reason for his exit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis decision comes after a great deal of thoughtful deliberation. I have been repeatedly reminded about the importance of attending more intentionally to my health and overall sustainability,\u201d Hagerman wrote, <a href=\"https:\/\/readtheforum.org\/27767\/news\/head-of-school-thomas-hagerman-announces-resignation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to Latin School newspaper The Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38210769\" width=\"590\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thomas-hagerman-announced-plans-step-119090948.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot of Dr. Thomas Hagerman, smiling.\" class=\"wp-image-38210769\"  \/>Dr. Thomas Hagerman announced his decision to step down as headmaster of Latin School of Chicago in a Jan. 14 email. Latin School of Chicago<\/p>\n<p>The surprise resignation <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/03\/us-news\/elite-chicago-middle-school-embroiled-in-nazi-music-controversy-for-second-time\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">comes two weeks after middle schoolers<\/a> at the $47,000 per year private school were busted by a teacher as they planned to rehearse the German song \u201cErika,\u201d which was used as a Nazi marching tune during WWII.<\/p>\n<p>The same taboo tune was played by middle school students in November 2024, which was an insult to Jewish families who felt their kids\u2019 well-being was threatened by Latin\u2019s toxic environment.<\/p>\n<p>The school said it investigated each incident.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the students involved were punished but did not detail the actions taken. <\/p>\n<p>The song \u201cErika,\u201d originally published in 1938, does not contain explicit references to Nazism, but was used by the Third Reich because of its rhythm.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49707602;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38210770\" width=\"883\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/students-change-classes-latin-school-118158059_db3305.jpg\" alt=\"Students wearing face masks walk past the Latin School of Chicago, which has welcoming messages for seniors and the class of 2024 on its windows.\" class=\"wp-image-38210770\"  \/>The tony school has had two music-centric antisemitism incidents in the last two years. TNS<\/p>\n<p>Notable alumni at the Windy City school include Nancy Reagan and chewing gum heir William Wrigley Jr. II. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent his children\u00a0to the elite institution. <\/p>\n<p>Latin School of Chicago expressed well wishes for Hagerman and announced they would be conducting a \u201cnational search\u201d for his replacement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headmaster of Chicago\u2019s tony Latin School will resign less than two weeks after it was revealed that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3862,8287,32205,30738,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-103529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-middle-schools","11":"tag-nazis","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}